Myanmar and Japan will cooperate on a wide range of health issues mainly including combating tuberculosis (TB), HIV/AIDS and malaria, official media reported Friday.

The agreemets were reached during a meeting between Myanmar President U Thein Sein and visiting parliament member of Japanese House of Representatives and Chairman of Japan-Myanmar Parliamentarian Friendship League Ichiro Aisawa at the Presidential Palace in Nay Pyi Taw on Thursday.

In addition to discussions on further strengthening bilateral relations, the pair also focused their talks on assistance of Japan for the 27th Southeast Asian Games, to be hosted by Myanmar at the end of this year, and matters related to Thilawa Special Economic Zone (SEZ), the report said.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency has agreed to provide a loan of over 51 billion yen in the form of official development assistance (ODA) to Myanmar in June.

Of the 51.052 billion yen's ODA loan, 17 billion is for construction and renovation of Myanmar's infrastructure to reduce poverty in the Southeast Asian nation, while 20 billion will be used for development of infrastructure in Thilawa SEZ and 14.052 billion for upgrading power grid project and power stations in Yangon.

Moreover, nine Myanmar public companies and a consortium of three Japanese firms comprising Mitsubishi, Marubeni and Sumitomo agreed to jointly develop Myanmar's Thilawa SEZ.

According to official statistics, Japan's investment in Myanmar amounted to 270.283 million U.S. dollars as of March 2013 since Myanmar opened to such investment in late 1988. Japan stands the 11th in Myanmar's foreign investment line-up.

Myanmar is a union of many nationalities; speaking over one hundred languages and dialects. The term Myanmar embraces all nationalities. The major races are the Kachin, Kayah, Kayin, Chin, Bamar, Mon, Rakhine and Shan.... ... More